South African non-profit shareholder activist organisation Just Share has highlighted local insurance group Santam’s refusal to pay out business interruption claims from policy holders in the hospitality and tourism sector resulting from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This followed Just Share’s raising of the issue at Santam’s electronic annual general meeting (AGM) on Tuesday. The claimants hold policies from Santam that cover business interruption caused by contagious or infectious notifiable diseases. But Santam, along with other South African insurance groups, argues that the business interruptions have been caused by the government ordered national lockdown (imposed to counter the pandemic) and not by the pandemic itself, thereby making the claims invalid.
